1. Technical Field
The following description relates to one or more image forming devices and cartridges detachably attached thereto.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, for an image forming device provided with a waste toner box for collecting therein waste material generated in an image forming operation, there has been known a technique to optically check whether an amount of the waste material in the waste toner box reaches a predetermined value (for example, see Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2002-139971). In addition, there has been known as a technique similar to the above technique, a technique to optically detect an amount of toner left in a toner cartridge.
Before the waste toner box is filled with the waste material, or the toner cartridge is vacant, the above techniques can notify a user that the waste toner box or toner cartridge (hereinafter referred to as a cartridge) is replaced with a new one, and induce the user to replace the cartridge with a new one. When the cartridge is replaced with a new one, there are executed initializing operations such as initializing of a counter for counting the number of printed papers (which counter is provided to estimate a usage history of the cartridge) and abort of a display for inducing the user to replace the cartridge with a new one.